FOUR men appeared before Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday charged with handling £750,000 worth of computer components stolen in north Co Dublin two weeks ago.
Mr Kantilal Jagubhai Patel (45), of Albert Road, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, his nephew, Mr Sanjay Patel (26), of Prestwood Road West, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton Mr Edward Frost (19), of Mill Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire and Mr Colin Falconer (32), of Lyng Lane, West Bromwich, are all charged with handling stolen computer components.
Mr Mark Philips, prosecuting told the court that the items were part of a haul of digital hardware drives stolen in an armed raid on a warehouse in Swords on February 11th. He said 500 items were recovered after police swooped on addresses in Wolverhampton and West Bromwich at the weekend.
All four men were remanded in custody until March 3rd.
The disk drives, manufactured by the Quantum computer company in north Dublin, were being stored in a haulier's warehouse in Swords. Six aimed and masked men broke in, overpowered security staff and stole several pallets containing the disk drives.
Gardai suspect that a gang of Dublin and Northern Ireland criminals, led by a Drogheda based criminal, is responsible ford the robbery and a similar operation in July last year.